Acting Governor Codey in his recent State of the State address spoke of ethics in government saying: “Our ability to govern is threatened by the public's growing loss of confidence in the integrity of government. This isn't a problem unique to one branch of government or one party.”

We are quite sure there are or have been unethical people in every branch of government and from every political party. However, the Democrat Party seems to have the vast majority in our state and this is not a new trend. Certainly not all Democrats are corrupt but…

Think of the politicians in our state that have been arrested and convicted in recent memory and they are all Democrats. Think of New Jersey politicians involved in scandal and you come up with a list of names affiliated with the Democrat Party.

Can you name a New Jersey Republican that has proven to be ethically challenged, mired in scandal, forced from office or arrested? We dubbed 2004 the year of political corruption and every case involved the Democrats. You can review the Star-Ledger’s corruption list in one of our previous posts here. New Jersey is certainly known for political corruption, but Codey’s casting aspersions on all political parties is disingenuous.

Codey also called for an overhaul of the Executive Commission on Ethics, proposing that a majority of the Commission be public members. This sounds good until you remember that the Governor will appoint these “public” members. We doubt these people will be randomly chosen from the phone book or volunteer lists, but instead will be friends of the party in power. Just think of who McGreevey would have appointed and you realize this propsal is just window dressing.